Minnesota Highway History Primer: 1917-1934

What follows is a short history of the creation and early development of
Minnesota's Trunk Highway System between 1916 and 1934.

During the late 19th century the railroad provided the primary means of
overland transportation for most Americans. The hegemony of the railroad
during this period resulted in a gross neglect of America's roads, which
remained undeveloped. By the turn of the century, demand for improved roads
was growing nation wide. First the bicycle, and then the automobile, increased
public demand. Road conditions in the United States were generally terrible,
with most roads being nothing more than dirt trails. Farmers had an especially
difficult time getting their crops to shipping points, and were searching
for any advantage they could get over what they saw as the evil, monopolistic
business practices of the railroads. These conditions led to the formation
of the "Good Roads Movement". The various organizations that sprouted
up all over the nation combined into what would become the highway lobby,
which was funded by bicycle , and later, automobile manufacturers.

The Department of Highways and the Babcock Amendment

In 1916, the pressure from the automobile lobby resulted in the federal
government passing a highway bill that provided funding to states to improve
their road networks, provided they had some form of government agency to
provide control over the funding and development. In compliance with the
federal highway act, the Minnesota legislature passed a highway bill in
1917 (Minnesota Laws, Ch. 119, SF No 609) that abolished the old highway
commission and replaced it with the Minnesota Department of Highways (MnDOH). The bill
also created the position of "Commissioner of Highways", which
was filled by Charles Babcock, a merchant from Elk River who had risen to
fame promoting the construction of good roads to aid commerce in his home
town.

Rather than improving routes, between 1917 and 1921 the state provided
funding to counties and local governments to improve certain important local
roadways, known as "State Roads" in a system not unlike the County
State-Aid Highways of today. The emphasis at this time was not on providing
long distance routes, but rather to improve problem roads to aid local farm-to-market
travel, and to aid in the delivery of mail.

An example of a registration for a motor
trail, in this case for the Jefferson Trail.

In 1917, the only system of routes to aid travelers in Minnesota were the
marked motor trails, which were organized and promoted by private associations.
Trails in Minnesota included the the Jefferson Highway, the "King of
Trails", The Mississippi River Scenic Highway, and many many more.
MnDOH required that these trails be registered and approved
by the highway commissioner (the registrations of these trails can be seen
at the Minnesota
Digital Library under the MnDOT collection, an example of which is displayed,
right). The trails were marked with distinctive symbols painted on telephone
poles and the like.

in 1917, Wisconsin had not only created a highway department to secure
federal funding, but had also created the first unified system of marked,
numbered trunk routes in the country. Not to be outdone by its neighbor
to the east, Commissioner Babcock proposed an amendment to the state constitution
to provide a state-maintained network of 70 numbered routes, (referred to
as "The Constitutional Routes" throughout this
site). The Minnesota legislature passed the proposal, known as the 'Babcock
Amendment' with the caveat that the legislature could not create new routes
until 75% of the new routes had been permanently improved. The amendment
went to the voters on election day, November 2, in 1920, and was voted into
law.

During the 1921 legislative session, another highway bill was passed (Minnesota
Laws, ch 323, approved April 18, 1921) which provided the full legality
for the construction of Minnesota's first trunk highway system. Grading
and paving of the new system took place throughout the 1920's and early
1930's.

The early construction program set in motion by the 1920/1921 amendment
had several primary road improvement goals in mind, including:

Paving (with at least gravel) of the trunk routes.

Shortening of the routing between cities via more direct roads.

Elimination of at-grade rail crossings.

An example of a 1920's era concrete highway - a stretch of old U.S. 61
south of Weaver in southeastern Minnesota.

The most important routes were generally paved with portland cement concrete.
These concrete pavements were at first only 18 feet wide, but were later
widened to 20 feet (the press was already calling MnDOH short-sighted
for building such narrow roads in 1926). These paved highways generally
had earthen shoulders, and sometimes strange integrated lip-curbs. Many
examples of this early pavement still exist in various places around the
state today.

Articles from the 1920's in the Winona Republican Herald seem to indicate
that the early motorists got a little over excited at the prospect of driving
on the first modern paved highways. The paper printed warnings for motorists
to slow down, especially if the shoulders were not yet completed. People
apparently had no idea how fast their cars could go, or the consequences
of an accident at such high speeds.

The U.S. Highways

In 1925 the AASHO (American Association of State Highway Officials) created
the U.S. highway system to provide consistent interstate routes , which
would allow for national automobile travel, replacing the marked auto trails.
Although the U.S. routes weren't officially approved until November 11,
1926, press releases from September indicate that the U.S. highway markers
were already going up in Minnesota.

The original routes in Minnesota included: U.S. 2, U.S. 8, U.S. 10, U.S.
12, U.S. 14, U.S. 16, U.S. 55, U.S. 61, U.S. 65, U.S. 71, U.S. 75, U.S.
210, U.S. 212, and U.S. 218.

The new U.S. routes were treated as a separate system from the already
existing constitutional routes by MnDOH. The assumption was that the state
routes would be used for local travel, while the U.S. routes would be used
for interstate travel. For example, U.S. 61 ran on the same road as State
Route 3 from La Crescent to St. Paul, with both numbers displayed along
the highway. There was no attempt to avoid duplication between the two systems.
For example, State Route 12 ran on the same road as U.S. 12 between Hudson
and St. Paul!

The End of the Babcock Era and the Legislative Routes

In December 1932, Babcock was removed from his position as Highway Commissioner
by Governor Floyd B. Olson , the first DFL governor of Minnesota. This was
apparently a time of great political turmoil - Olson had won election with
the support of farmers and labor during the early days of the great depression.
He was best known as an advocate for state control of many utilities and
industries, which got him branded as a socialist. His interests apparently
included highways.

Babcock had warned against any expansion of the trunk system, urging to
not take on more routes in a 1932 press release shortly after being ousted.
Olson's chosen successor, a Minneapolis city engineer named Elsberg, apparently
had no problem with a system expansion. In 1933, the legislature passed
an additional 140 legislative routes to the trunk highway
system, effectively creating the basis of the modern network (Minnesota
Laws, 1933, ch 440). These new routes could be altered by simple legislative
action in contrast to the earlier constitutional routes, which could only
be changed by another amendment. The legislation also empowered the commissioner
to "consolidate routes", and "avoid duplication" in
the numbering system.

The system expansion and mandate to consolidate the route system culminated
on May 4, 1934, when road crews accomplished the transition to the new system
in a single day. The U.S. routes were fully integrated into the system,
removing any duplication with state routes.

The system created in 1934 continued to evolve and expand, and with the
addition of the Interstate Highways starting in the late 1950's, eventually
became the modern trunk highway network still in use today.

Sources:

Gutfreund, Owen D. 20th Century Sprawl: Highways and the Reshaping of
the American Landscape. Oxford University Press, 2004.